TCI Turns 10

Dear reader,

The Creative Independent is now ten years old. That’s a little over a quarter of the Web’s entire history. It’s wild to think how much and how little everything has changed. Many artists are dealing with the same questions: how to stay afloat in precarious times, how to juggle a creative practice and a day job, how to start something new, how to work through creative blocks.

Is creativity just a matter of spiraling back on the same questions over and over and little by little learning more about ourselves, our practices, our dreams, and each other?

In December 2017 we counted various words across the website (314 interviews), and promised to update the list on occasion. Here it is again, ten years in: the same words (and a few new ones) across all 2,134 published interviews (5.2 million words).

On spiraling around

A library for the next 10 years

Below we’ve chosen zines, guides, and interviews for the next 10 years, available as PDFs.

3,664 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds until September 26, 2036

We launched TCI on September 26, 2016 with the goal of becoming an evergreen resource of practical and emotional guidance. The first interview was with Eileen Myles, and our first event was a public conversation with Ian MacKaye.

My original inspiration for the site was the punk zines that guided me as a teenager. These homemade publications taught me how to write and to distribute my work, and how to not only think about doing something, but to do it. They helped me find my voice and my community.

I’ve made sure to stick to that ethos in everything we do on TCI, without succumbing to the temptation to expand in ways that didn’t feel right. The goal is to keep TCI humble, honest, and useful.

Thank you so much for reading TCI over the years, and for reaching out with such kind, thoughtful words. It’s endlessly appreciated. There’s only one person checking the inbox and these notes keep me going.

Here’s to many more days.

Real Snail

p.s. Five years ago we did this too: Visit the 5 Years of TCI website.

Producer/Editorial: Brandon Stosuy

Design & Development: Elliott Cost (Bell Kiosk)

Social Graphics: Mikki Janower

Image credits:

Snail shell: Theba geminata

by H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized and desaturated.

Fossil: Catellocaula vallata

by Mark A. Wilson, public domain.